Northern Lights · Tour
4D3N Yellowknife Aurora Package with Mandarin Guide and Lodge Stay
Ratings collected by Viator and Tripadvisor
YellowknifeOne note before anything else: this tour is not primarily conducted in English. It works for English speaking travellers who are relaxed about language, and not for those who are not. Accommodation is at the Explorer Hotel or Chateau Nova, both top rated in town. The aurora waiting happens at an Aurora Lodge with a large indoor area, which means no standing in the cold and no hours folded into a crowded van. The package includes airport pickup 24 hours a day and a city tour of the landmarks: Pilots Monument, the Visitor Centre, where guests receive a certificate and a small knife, Ndilo and Old Town. In winter the route takes in the Ice Road, and in March the Ice Castle. Aurora photographs are taken free and sent by drive link. Nights combine lodge viewing with aurora hunting. Drivers and guides are experienced and the commercial vehicles carry $2 million in insurance.
What's included
- 24 Hours Airport pick up
- Yellowknife city sightseeing tour
- Take aurora pictures for free
- 3 Nights accommodation at Chateau Nova or Explorer hotel（2Queen or 1 King）
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- Hot chocolate and snacks provided during the tours.
- 3 Nights, 2 different ways of experiencing aurora each night.（Aurora lodge+Aurora hunting)
Itinerary
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Our driver will be present at the arrivals hall holding a…
The driver waits in the arrivals hall with a sign reading "Welcome Aurora Tour VIP". Pickup runs 24 hours a day, so send your flight number ahead and the car will be there for the actual landing time, not the scheduled one. After baggage claim, and before hotel check in, the driver walks you through where the supermarket and the restaurants are and how to reach them on foot. Then it is on to Chateau Nova or the Explorer Hotel.
Yellowknife
What the Aurora Lodge is good for: a large heated room instead of a cold roadside or a full vehicle; snacks, hot drinks and hot dogs while the waiting stretches; First Nation tepees and fur clothing to use as photographic foreground; free aurora pictures, sent afterwards by drive link. What aurora hunting is good for: different lakes make different backgrounds, and driving further out raises the chance of finding a hole in the cloud. Its drawbacks are just as plain. Vehicle space is cramped, Yellowknife winters are severe enough to make the inside of a van cold and unpleasant, and every passing car floods the spot with headlights. This package uses both. Guests wait in comfort at the lodge, and on cloudy nights the group chases in whichever direction the cloud allows.
Bush Pilot's Monument
The lighthouse is the first hint of how the night might go, and the stop at the Bush Pilots Monument is there to remember the pilots who flew this country when nothing was mapped.
Yellowknife Visitor Centre and Information
The city tour starts at the Welcome Monument, near the airport where the first plane landed inside the Arctic Circle, and where a large "Welcome to Yellowknife" sign has become the standard photograph. Then the Visitor Centre, where guests collect a free Yellowknife souvenir and a certificate. Next is the entrance to the Ice Road, open in winter, where the driving happens on ice more than a metre thick. In March the route adds the Ice Castle. The drive continues through Old Town and the First Nations Reserve for the older part of the city's story, and ends at the Pilot's Monument, the highest point in Yellowknife and the best view over all of it. At the foot of the hill are the well known Bullock restaurant and the cheapest Canada Goose shop in town. Stay a while or ride back to the hotel to rest.
Yellowknife
The Aurora Lodge again: a wide warm room rather than a cold roadside or a packed vehicle, snacks and hot drinks through the waiting, First Nation tepees and fur clothing for photographs, and free aurora pictures delivered by drive link. Aurora hunting, again, does something the lodge cannot: new lakes, new backgrounds, and a better chance of dodging cloud by driving further. The costs are real too. Cramped vehicles, deep winter temperatures inside them, and headlights from passing cars ruining exposures. So the night uses both. Wait warm at the lodge, and chase in whichever direction the cloud thins.
Yellowknife
Aurora hunting means riding a bus to lakeside or roadside parking areas and waiting there for the lights to appear. The upside is variety: different photographic backgrounds, and on overcast nights the chance to drive towards thinner cloud. The downside is that headlights from passing vehicles wreck the dark, and that a small bus, a hard winter and no restroom make for an uncomfortable few hours. The Aurora Lodge answers most of that: room to spread your gear out, a warm stove, snacks and hot drinks whenever you want them, and hot dogs at midnight.
Hotel Transfer to Airport Not Included in This Package …
The hotel transfer to the airport is not included in this package. For early flights between 4:00 AM and 10:00 AM, you can bring your luggage along to the final night of aurora viewing and be dropped at the airport when the tour ends. The hotel's own pre-arranged shuttle is the other option. For flights between 10:00 AM and 1:00 AM, send your flight details in advance if you need a transfer. The guide will tell you the pickup time and you wait in the hotel lobby. Making your own way to the airport is also fine.
Not included
- Not including Driver and guide service fee, the 4D3N package is 35 Canadian dollars per pax
- Driver and guide service fee, Yellowknife Airport
Good to know
- Service animals allowed
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Up to 15 travelers per booking.
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- Mobile or paper ticket accepted
- Guiding available in: zh-TW, cmn, en.
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